Modern mechanical systems include many complex modules that are difficult to repair and otherwise maintain. Various types of mechanical systems, including engines, process control systems, and the like, include many discrete components that can be difficult to evaluate and repair. These complexities are particularly applicable to aircraft engines, such as those on modern commercial and military aircraft. Costs associated with repairs and other maintenance of engines in a fleet of these aircraft can be high. Nonetheless, failure to maintain engines may lead to loss of life and loss of expensive aircraft.
In order to mitigate repair costs and downtime of aircraft in a fleet, airlines and military personnel have begun to utilize statistical reliability analysis techniques to plan and to budget for maintenance of equipment, to predict costs associated with product warranties, and to make decisions about maintenance of a particular device. Nonetheless, these estimations typically do not allow fleet maintenance personnel to implement maintenance or troubleshooting tasks in an order that minimizes maintenance costs. Hence, there is a need for an improved system and method of troubleshooting aircraft system failures.